There's a bit of a flamewar going on right now between the main PulseAudio developer, and another Linux desktop developer who grew frustrated by some very real problems caused directly and indirectly by it. PulseAudio is the latest of many savior technologies that promise to make audio on Linux not suck. I'm actually pretty optimistic… Continue reading Brutal honesty in open source development
Category: Tech
Tech stuff
Software as hiring decision
This article in CIO Magazine touches on things that you should look for in choosing open source software: Project stability: Can you trust the project to be there when you need it? Project support: Can you get support when you need it? Internal software management: Does your company know what open-source programs it’s using? How… Continue reading Software as hiring decision
A hard problem worth solving
Here's a description of the organic open source panel at OSCON (which I'm participating in): "The OSI’s Open Source Definition attempts to set the minimum bar for a software license to be considered “open source”. However, there’s much more to a software project than just the license. Are software projects dominated by a single company… Continue reading A hard problem worth solving
Open source and a free tote bag
Matt Asay wrote a blog post "Cash, code, or free-riding in open source communities?", which was a good post on a topic I've been thinking a lot about myself. He used the term "free-rider" which caused a well documented uproar. I'm saddened by the sense of entitlement inherent in the uproar. What's wrong with asking… Continue reading Open source and a free tote bag
Is OpenSolaris an elitist?
Dave Neary has a great blog post about Sun trying to do the right thing. It was refreshing to read this, and quite insightful. I've been watching the naming debate with some interest, if for no other reason than this is a conversation I'm quite interested in pushing my view in, and it helps to… Continue reading Is OpenSolaris an elitist?
Speaking at the Seattle Social Media Club
A little bit of work talk. I'm going to be speaking tonight (January 31) at the Seattle Social Media Club about Second Life, along with my co-worker Greg Tomko-Pavia (aka Periapse Linden) Jeff Barr at Amazon, who has been doing really innovative work promoting Amazon Web Services using Second Life, and Brian White, the author… Continue reading Speaking at the Seattle Social Media Club
New Job Title: Open Source Busybody
For those of you wondering what I've been doing at Linden Lab, now I can tell you.
Orkut is in Alexa’s Top 10 sites…wtf?
Google's social networking site Orkut was the coolest thing since sliced bread back in early 2004. It was a social network that actually had interesting people on it. It had a fun user interface. And then, the reliability problems kicked in, and then the Brazilians invaded every corner of it. So just about everyone I… Continue reading Orkut is in Alexa’s Top 10 sites…wtf?
Wikimania
I'm off to Boston, to be among fellow nerds at Wikimania, where I'm hosting a discussion about enterprise use of MediaWiki, as well as hanging around beforehand for Hacking Days. We'll see what sort of attendance there is for my session; there's a lot of parallel tracks at this thing. I'm hoping to figure out… Continue reading Wikimania
Apple’s $150 IQ test
I'm not an Apple fanboy by any stretch of the imagination, but I do have to hand it to them with the new laptops. Not points on quality, but on revenue maximizing genius. Specifically, charging $150 more for a black laptop. People will pay for the cachet, and charging $150 is just enough to make… Continue reading Apple’s $150 IQ test
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